English listening skills play a prominent role if you want to improve your English communication skills.
Now, you might ask, “How to improve listening skills?”
Everyone learns his mother tongue by listening to people around him.
I come across so many participants who have been watching movies to improve their English listening skills. However, they find it hard to learn English by watching movies.
We all love watching movies. So, watching movies should be one of the best platforms for English listening practice. Have you ever considered why you fail to improve your English listening skills despite watching movies?
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Watching Movies for English Listening Practice
When you watch a video, you are engrossed in different flavours of the film like action, romance, comedy, etc. and learning takes a back seat.
Actors, actresses, villains, and other characters are your centre of attention, not the way they use their language.
If you like an action movie, your whole concentration would be on the fight scenes, and likewise, some people will concentrate on romantic scenes if they want the same.
Hence, watching movies to improve listening skills is NOT a good idea. Moreover, movies are meant for entertainment not to teach you English. I am not saying you should not watch English movies to improve your English.
You may watch English movies of those genres that you don’t’ like much.
Imagine, you love watching action movies, and you are completely engrossed in action scenes. You forget about improving your listening skills. Hence, if you watch a thriller or comedy movie, you can focus on improving your listening skills.
Here are the best movies for learning English.
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The Importance of Listening skills
“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” –Bryant H. McGill
The importance of listening skills can be understood from the fact that you cannot execute or implement an idea unless you understand it. To understand an idea, you need to listen to the speaker attentively. Moreover, it is one of the best traits of great managers, leaders, salespeople, business tycoons, and other successful people.
Listening is not limited to understanding and implementing an idea. Listening is about being respectful to the speaker.
Let me explain. Imagine you are talking to your father. He is nodding frequently while doing a job on his computer. You share with him a difficult situation that you are going through at your office. It took you about ten minutes to explain the situation and hardship you are suffering.
When you ask for a solution, you find out that he did not even listen to a word you said to him. Will not you feel disrespected?
Once you understand the fact that the importance of listening skills is not limited to understanding a person but respecting a person, you strive to become a better listener.
How to Improve Listening Skills – Suggested Listening Practice
Let me suggest an alternative way to improve English listening skills. It is equally entertaining and interesting. I have experimented with this for a long. It works well for all professionals and job seekers since it doesn’t distract you much, unlike movies.
You should invest this time listening and watching talk shows, debate shows, and celebrities’ interviews.
Listening is one of the best media to improve your English listening skills.
Hence, I always suggest my participants listen to talk shows, debate shows, celebrity interviews, and other similar programs. Interestingly, I never told anybody to watch movies to improve my English.
I still remember one of my students who had been watching three movies a day for three months.
He came to me and said, “I have been watching English movies for three months, and there is no improvement.”
He was depressed. One of his friends told him to watch English movies to learn English. Later, I came to know that his friend was never good at speaking or understanding English. I am not saying that watching movies is a bad idea to improve my English.
However, it doesn’t benefit beginners much. You need a little guidance to learn English through movies.
I have explained this process later in this post.
A person who has learned English by watching movies can give you a piece of advice you need the most. If someone suggests that you should watch English movies to learn English, ask for the right process if are impressed with her or her English.
Otherwise, watching movies may not help you in learning English due to the reasons stated above.
English Listening Practice for Beginners
You can listen to the actual conversation of anchors, celebrities, politician, authors, business tycoons, and other famous to learn and improve your English communication skills.
However, in movies, you often listen to the native pronunciation of Americans and English people which is difficult to understand for a beginner.
A beginner needs continuity or momentum to learn anything. When you fail to understand English movies, you might want to give up easily. Here are some English listening lessons for beginners.
In my opinion, you should start with talk shows, debates, and interviews.
Have you noticed most of the teachers on YouTube never speak the kind of English your experience in English movies?
In movies, the characters speak English naturally and beginners always have trouble understanding them. Hence, you should deliberately listen to speakers who speak English slowly. Here are two videos where you can understand the speakers easily:
If you are a beginner, you can listen to the following speakers:
- Prof. Sumita Roy
- Osho
- Satguru
- Mukesh Ambani
- Chetan Bhagat
- Gaur Gopal Das
- Subah Jain
- Ashish Vidyarthi
- Smriti Irani
- Dan Lok
You can listen to the speakers mentioned below if you are an advanced learner:
- Barack Obama
- Oprah Winfrey
- Arnab Goswami
- Simerjeet Singh
- Shiv Khera
- Shashi Tharoor
- Brian Tracy
- Grant Cardone
- Anand Mahindra
- Les Brown
- Robin Sharma
You can also listen to speakers from your country that are good at speaking English. Here are two videos for you:
If you happen to commute to your office by car or public transport, you can listen to audiobooks.It will help improve your English listening skills and other important skills such as time management, communication skills, business skills, people skills, leadership skills and many more.
You can listen to audiobooks using Audible.
The best thing is you get your first audiobook absolutely FREE. Afterwards, you need to pay a very nominal amount.
You can also listen to these audiobooks on your mobile, smart TV, laptop, and other devices with an internet connection. Here are some of my favourite audiobooks on Amazon:
To make the best use of commuting hours you can listen to audiobooks of your choice to improve your listening skills.
Once you are able to understand people who speak English slowly and people from your country who are good at speaking English, you can start watching motivational speakers. You can also watch English debate shows, talk shows, interviews, speeches, and other programs.
Next, you may watch English movies also to improve your English.
Please make sure that watch a genre that you don’t like much (with subtitles) so that you can focus on improving your English.
How to Improve English Listening Skills – Conclusion
Here are three great options to improve English listening skills.
1.You can listen to audiobooks during your commuting hours.
2. You can watch talk shows, debates, speeches, and interviews to understand the real English conversation.
3. you can also watch movies to comprehend the English language better.
But, please take care that you watch English movies of that genre that you don’t like much.
You will be able to concentrate on learning English and it will really help you develop the grip of the English language.
Has the poor command of the English language stopped your career growth?
Have you decided to improve your English speaking and writing skills?
I invite you to improve your English and skyrocket your career.
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